'Lofting' raises bar on overcrowded flats

Jimmy Thomson

Landlords seeking to exploit desperate Sydney renters have taken to subdividing flats horizontally as well as vertically - cramming more tenants into even smaller spaces - prompting strata experts to warn it is only a matter of time before it causes a tragedy.

With a critical shortage of low-cost rental accommodation in Sydney, overcrowding appears to be spreading, but horizontal subdivision or "lofting" is a relatively new factor, joining hot-bunking - beds used in shifts - as a way of making more money from the same space.

"We have received reports of apartments being subdivided horizontally with divisions, using loft-style beds," a City of Sydney spokeswoman told Fairfax Media.

"The City investigates all complaints, but ... council officers cannot enter residential properties without a court order or the tenant's consent, making it difficult to gather evidence of overcrowding."

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The spokesman added that, by the time permission to enter a unit had been acquired, evidence of overcrowding had often been removed. However, "lofting" and other subdivisions were harder to conceal.

"These sorts of structures are deemed 'works' and require development consent because of possible impacts on fire safety, daylight and amenity and structural integrity," she said.

"The City would seek to remove any unapproved structures."

Strata construction expert Chris Mo'ane of Integrated Building Consultants said he had seen about a dozen cases of horizontal subdivision in the past few years.

"The most common ones are where owners fill in the void over the lounge area of a studio apartment where the sleeping area is upstairs in an open gallery arrangement. Putting a floor in cuts down the light and air and, when people start cramming beds into the space, you have very serious health and safety issues, not to mention fire risks.

"Owners just call in joiners to knock up some supporting pillars and then lay a floor across, which makes you wonder how safe these constructions really are. If these reconfigurations were in any way compliant with building regulations, they would have been there in the first place. Architects and developers don't waste a square centimetre of available space."

Mo'ane, who said he had also seen platforms built in apartments with higher ceilings, was called in several years ago to perform an "audit" of overcrowding in a section of the World Square development.

"We went in under the slightly bogus guise of fire safety checks. The worst case we found was a two-bedroom flat with 16 people living in it. It was clear that nobody ever cleaned. I opened the bathroom door and quickly shut it again. There was no way I was going in there … and I used to work on fishing boats."

Authorities say there is very little they can do about overcrowding under present laws, which forbid owners corporations (formerly known as bodies corporate), building managers or council officers from making spot checks of units.

The issue hit the headlines last week with tenants in Regis Towers, near Sydney's Chinatown, complaining that they had been locked out of their homes when their swipe cards were cancelled due to minor infringements of strict security rules.

The building's managing committee said the tougher rules were brought in to curb overcrowding, among other problems including prostitution.

Tenants can easily bypass normal electronic access by "dead letter drops" of swipe cards (whereby the last tenant to leave a flat leaves the swipe key at a mutually agreed hiding place for the next person to use to get in) or even by using mobile phones hooked up to trigger intercom access buttons when they are dialled.

"Imagine trying to evacuate a building in a fire, when there's up to 26 people crammed into a two-bedroom apartment."

The impending changes to strata legislation will include a default bylaw limiting occupation to two adults per bedroom. But the bylaw will only apply to new buildings (and then only if the building adopts the bylaw) and there are no plans to allow spot checks on apartments.

The proposed strata law changes will not "expand owners corporations' existing rights to enter individual strata lots to comply with their legal obligations, or in case of an emergency," a spokesman for Fair Trading told Fairfax Media.

58 comments so far

It's only going to get worse, as the population & wealth inequality keeps growing & everyone wants to live in the city.

Commenter

Big sydney

Date and time

January 28, 2014, 4:24PM

Agreed. Plenty of room and fresh air just 40 mins north of Sydney or keep packing them in like battery hens in the CBD.

Commenter

Bang Bang

Date and time

January 28, 2014, 5:01PM

There is a thing called the Building Code of Australia that has minimum room sizes etc.If a place doesn't comply a you don't get a) an occupancy certificate and b) insurance.This might be happening with existing places but there would be few new places being builtits happening to. It pretty strict now and certifiers get hammered if they pass things that don't comply.

Commenter

J Walker

Location

Date and time

January 29, 2014, 10:45AM

Big Sydney,

Yep, its just going to get much worse. This is the crap world we have the unfortunate please of inhabiting. If you build it they will come. If you don't build it, they will still come but not as many.

Personally, I've given up on it. Given up on the world, that is. I no longer care if we don't build another piece of infrastructure in this country, because I know in a world headed to over 10 billion people, it only means more people for Sydney. It doesn't matter how much infrastructure we build in Sydney, Sydney will still be crowded, congested and unworkable.

Commenter

Breaking in your crap world

Location

Date and time

January 29, 2014, 9:48PM

just the tip of the iceberg. I have seen dozens of houses illegally divided into 'flats.' Real estate agents have told me its none of their business!! how is it that houses zoned as single dwellings are divided up into 'flats' and these then publicly advertised as flats, when they cannot legally exist as such is beyond me. How authorities such as councils are not empowered to police these laws is beyond belief. It seems developers and 'investors' are not content with laws such as negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions in their favour, but consider themselves beyond any such laws as exist which might curtail their profits. Shameful.

Commenter

fred

Location

sydney

Date and time

January 28, 2014, 3:40PM

I'd rather be shameful and not be a renter. Investing is the best thing you can ever do. If you have one kid, ensure you have your own home + 1 investment to give them when they marry. 2 kids, 2 properties and so on. As soon as you're positively geared which is almost instant in Sydney, pull money out of it to get it negative geared again and buy again and again. Then when all are paying for themselves including strata, bills etc you can slow down yourself from working. Let renters support you. I wouldn't sleep at night if I was around 30 and nowhere near buying. Horrible thought. What do you do when you can't pay rent anymore, move in with your kids? How embarrassing.

Commenter

Anne

Location

Date and time

January 28, 2014, 4:52PM

Oh well done Anne .... yes just buy as many investment properties as you have kids. Wow you sound so down to earth & like you are a true hard working battler.And yes positively geared near immediately with less than 4% returns then costs need to be removed.Aren't we lucky Anne ... that we bought up & got in a good position while the market was blasted ahead with government intervention.But of course we should advocate for things to remain the same & properties will just keep rising & the average will be worth 5million each soon.Shame rents are flat lining & property investors are understanding how low their prospective returns really are.So yes ... the fortunate few who bought at boom times will always advocate for buying up all the properties at high prices.

Commenter

Yuppy

Location

Yuppy Ville

Date and time

January 29, 2014, 8:23AM

anne people have to have a lot of money at hand for costs when buying an investment property. The problem is many investors don't have this money for the costs involved with maintaining a rental property, and this is why so many renters are stuck living in hovels.And then many investors find they can't manage the costs, so they sell their properties, that have become hovels, and they then loose money.it's not the peaches and cream some make out, especially when the real estate market is stagnet, as it is in many places today.

Commenter

Joe

Location

Date and time

January 29, 2014, 9:40AM

pffff, little do they know... come out here in the west of Sydney and see what really goes on. I seen a whole family living in a 2 x 2 garden shed at the back of (won't mention the suburb) so what... who is going to do anything about it...the media? pffff I'll clap once the government actually does something about it for once.